Tugay wins Hughes' praise
03 Nov 2006 - 09:07:53
Blackburn boss Mark Hughes picked out veteran midfielder Tugay for special praise as Rovers secured a 3-0 win against FC Basel in Thursday's UEFA Cup Group E clash at Ewood Park.
The game was goalless until the Turkish star broke the deadlock with a 75th-minute yard strike and it opened the floodgates as Francis Jeffers and Benni McCarthy added further goals in the closing stages.
"It was a fantastic strike from Tugay," Hughes told Rovers' official website. "He was excellent all night as he has been all season.
"We needed a little bit of magic at that point, we kept on probing and I thought it was a really good European performance.
"I think we're going to get nights like that here. We hope good teams are going to come here and be organised and have a game plan and we have to be up to it.
"I thought today we were nice and solid, created chances and in the end got our reward for a good professional performance.
"We were up against a good side, they had a game plan, they were looking to suck us into over-committing players and then hitting us on the break. They had good players in advanced areas to be able do that so it was going to be a game where chances were going to be created at both ends.
"Overall I'm delighted because it was a difficult game tonight. We were against good opposition that has got good European pedigree and we'll have games like that where we have to be patient and try and probe and draw the opposition out.
"We're in a great position now. We've got two more games and if we can go to Feyenoord and get something there then we'll look to possibly top the group.
"We're delighted that we've been able to get the three points tonight, it was really important that we did that after having a great result away in Poland, so two wins in the group games is fantastic for us."